Is anyone else playing dangerously?
I started on high and aim to get through it if it kills me!
it is brutal for sure but I am making headway. My food situation is managed and so far I have 6 dudes trying to survive out there
If anyone is playing hard, how soon are you trying to wipe out the goblins?

They seem to be the biggest hurdle on this difficulty setting, as trying to manage everything and beat their attacks is extremely hard.

I am currently attempting a strategy of advancing guard towers up to their camp but no luck so far.

The main difficulty I have is trying to get soldiers there in time and together as a force.

One thing I have considered is keeping the colony to four for at least 2 winter cycles to test this but I wonder how the goblins advance in strength. Do they increase in numbers regardless of colonist total or stay ‘matched’ to our level?

Another question I have generally is that if a colonist is trained up in multiple skills, do they have to be actively e.g. a soldier in order to gain from that skill, or are they then counted as passive skills?

Anyway, it is a screamingly frustrating game and I absolutely love it so far

I successfully and I think rather easily destroyed both camps. I won’t do exact spoilers unless asked but it
was a good strategy that involved 5 bowmen, 5 towers and a kiter
I was against 7 of theirs which I thought would be too many but YAY! Chicken dinner for me

So it actually ended up being less of a headache than I thought it would be. The time it took was around 2 winters I think, maybe a bit less. Not sure if it can be achieved any quicker but would be interested in others’ experience.

I’ll post an image of my (probably quite large development when it’s done

The fact is you have inifnite way to do it and every game are different, in strategy, build, etc you can have inifnite possibilities that’s a good thing for me, i’m happy to hear you’ve found the answer lonely like always said, the better way to learn is to try !

Yes I agree there are probably multiple strategies. I’d like to hear more from anyone else on hard mode.

Thanks for confirming they gain XP like this. I presume that is for every skill they use, or just soldiery?
I think I noticed they got forester points but am not sure…

I always try hardest setting on every game as I think I learn quicker that way. Or maybe I am a masochist

Because this was really very hard indeed and I played probably 4 games before this to try to understand what was happening.

For me the simple idea was that unless the goblins are all dead then I don’t have a chance, so that was the priority. Once I understood the mechanics it was simple enough to train all my dudes as soldiers, get them all a bow and a tower - after that it was remarkably quick to kill all the gobs.

It wasn’t easy though, as properly managing to keep all my dudes in the same place so they could attack as a unit was quite frustrating. For example, when trying to destroy the camps they will destroy one hut then walk off into the woods LOL. So a block select for them all would be desirable please.

My strategy was to include some sacrifices but it turned out that this was unnecessary as they all lived.

Without a doubt the hardest thing seems to be controlling the moods of my dudes. Once that is under control everything is simple.

Having survived the goblins there is only expansion to consider, which seems to be simple enough, as without further threat they can just be managed and pacified.

Possibly the addition of another goblin camp in the far north, which isn’t activated until later, would be a fun thing to maintain the tension…not a respawn thing, as that would be too horrible, but an ‘emergence’ thing maybe…

Anyway as I said, well done guys! …great little game which greatly alarmed my housemate, due to all the very loud swearing and general angry shouting as I eventually figured it all out